PhilHealth actuarial life should be validated by third party —Rep. Quimbo

The actuarial life of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) should be validated by a third party to ensure that figures being released are correct, a lawmaker urged Wednesday.

In a congressional hearing, Marikina Representative Stella Luz Quimbo questioned PhilHealth findings that its actuarial life is now only one year, down from 10 years in 2019.

"Ang problema diyan is if you say it's one year, ang expectation ng tao is mawawala lahat ng pondo na 'yan," she said.

"Bigyan niyo kami ng actuarial validation and this validation should be done by a third party kasi kayo po ay actuary. Sana po ay external ang validation," she added.

This comes after PhilHealth acting senior vice president Nerissa Santiago on Tuesday claimed at a Senate hearing that the insurer's actuarial life is now down to a year due to decreased collections and an expected increase in benefit payouts due to  COVID-19.

Quimbo questioned such projections, noting that the insurer will still be able to collect from members, and that it will just need to intensify collection efforts.

"Sa tingin ko meron pa rin namang substantial amount of collections. Ibig sabihin, kailangan niyo lang i-effort," she said.

Quimbo also questioned PhilHealth's P45-billion project for COVID payouts, as her own projections indicate P3.2 billion. —KBK, GMA News